View from W6th

Data Visualization Project for Case Western Reserve University

noreply@blogger.com (Optiem) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Data Visualization at the Kelvin Smith library at Case Western Reserve University. A case study and video documentary explaining how Optiem helped Case Western Reserve University implement a data visualization strategy for the Kelvin Smith Library.

Making the Invisible Library Visible from Optiem LLC on Vimeo.

Social Sharing on Twitter and Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Bykowski) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:13:00 +0000

Including social media integration in websites has become common place. Often we work with clients to either include their Twitter or Facebook feeds or at least link to their social media accounts.

Yet it would be short sighted to only provide the one-way connection in your website. The social sharing sites "Add This" and "Share This" offer a simple alternative but the implementations for both can be bulky and overwhelming offering every... possible... social network... plus email.

Instead it's better to focus on providing the most relevant or at least the most common channels to your users. This simplifies the interaction and makes it much more likely that your visitors will actually tweet your page or post it to Facebook.

In my recent post highlighting the Social Profiles tool we built for Exact Target, I attempted to showcase something that was both interesting and useful and had integrated sharing capabilities.

Because the tool was dome completely in Flash and we had a short time line, we opted to use a pre-configured link (example) to allow people to tweet the Social Profile that most closely matched them. This made the interaction very simple.

In an email I wrote promoting the tool I encouraged people to "...Tweet it, post it and send this out to whomever might find it useful or informative." Because it was email, I could not include JavaScript as I would on a website or blog post. "Add This" wouldn't work, neither would a Wordpress Plugin. Instead I used the built in capability of Facebook and Twitter to take information passed in with he link.

Twitter recently began offering the Tweet Button. What makes this nice is that it customizes the tweet text, URL, and target language. Even better, it allows you to recommend up to two Twitter accounts after someone posts their tweet.

However, one of the best things about this technology is that it's functionality can be achieved using simple HTML. The advantage is that you can give people the option of sharing your content not just on your website or blog, but in places that don't allow JavaScript, such as some web enabled phones and your email newsletter. More info is available on the Tweet Button page of Twitter's developer section.

Regardless of what social media channels you use, always consider how you are enabling people to share your content in their social circles and be sure the technology you use is compatible with your messaging platform.

Social Profiles Interactive Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Bykowski) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Optiem worked closely with our partner, Exact Target, to develop a new interactive tool for visualizing how people participate in content consumption and creation. The research report developed by Exact Target covers 12 distinct social personas, each with specific traits, behaviors, and tendencies. This in-depth market research paints a broad picture that helps marketers understand how different channels are used and what activities people engage in.

Coupled with age and gender demographics, the tool allows marketers to dive deep into a specific demographic for any person to see channel use in email, Facebook, and Twitter as well as participation in 21 creation, consumption, and contribution activities.

Powered by Exact Target’s excellent data and analysis, Optiem integrated this information with a rich Flash UI that contains more than 7.5K data points. The plot chart shows where each persona falls on the axes of consumption and contribution. Clicking on a persona reveals a deeper look at how the persona uses social and email channels and participates in online activities.

Check out the tool below and sign up to receive the report. Pass the word to anyone you know who might benefit from this amazing tool!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing visit ExactTarget.com/SFF

Uppercut Motion + Sound | Construction Update

noreply@blogger.com (Hallie Bram) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:24:00 +0000

We're pleased to announce that the construction of our new studio space is moving along quite nicely! We will post more updates in the near future, however, here's a tease to peak your interest:

We look forward to the completion of our space come early fall.

Whose is using iPhones and smart phones?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:44:00 +0000

The way users connect to the internet is changing radically over time. Not only do more people have smart phones, but added tools for feature phones are starting to blur the difference between the categories. According to a recent study by Pew on mobile access, 40% of adults now access the internet using cell phones - an increase from 32% in April 2009.

So people are using phones more to access the internet, and smart phone users are leading the way.

In the 'smart' phone camp, there are a few platforms to track including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile. The interesting thing is that Pew research points out the demographic differences between these platform users. Why is that important? If you are going to develop a mobile app, it allows you to target demographic groups based on platform.

Here is the breakdown as provided by a Media Post report:

Phone	Male	Female	Age	Income	Ethnicity
iPhone	60.5%	39.5%	25-34 (34.3%)	$100K+ (47.1%)	White (74.4%)
BlackBery	58.2%	41.9%	25-34 (26.1%)	$100K+ (42.7%)	White (74.4%)
Android	57.5%	42.5%	25-34 (29%)	$100K+ (35.1%)	White (75.4%)
Windows Mobile	64.8%	35.2%	25-34 (26.8%)	$100K+ (35.6%)	White (77.5%)
Palm (WebOS)	57.2%	42.8%	25-34 (29.6%)	$100K+ (33.4%)	White (77.1%)

The report also details the types of activities and the frequency in which they are done by each demographic group. Although the phone ownership is dominated by whites, minority cell owners are significantly more likely than whites to use most non-voice data applications on their mobile devices. They also take advantage of a wider range of mobile phone features compared with whites.

When it comes to accessing the internet via a cell phone the breakdown is 33% (white, non-Hispanics), 46% (black, non-Hispanics) and 51% (English-speaking Hispanics).

Vertically Integrated Marketing Stream Of Consciousness

noreply@blogger.com (Optiem) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:48:00 +0000

Kendall Allen calls it “Ad Hoc Digital”. Tom Schick calls it the “Duct Tape Approach.” What ever you call it, the non-strategic, non-integrated and non-connected -together injection of tactically employed digital “media” into an overall marketing strategy continues to stunt the growth of many marketers.

Personally, I like the concept of vertical integration as a metaphor for building effective marketing integration: In classic vertical integration in manufacturing, there is upstream vertical integration (like Ford owning steel and rubber companies). There is downstream vertical integration (like American Apparel owning its own retail outlets), and balanced (both upstream and downstream) vertical integration where the company owns or controls the whole process, from raw material to final distribution.

For my metaphor, think about your owned content as your upstream vertical integration, and your owned or borrowed channels as your downstream vertical integration.

Unlike classic vertical integration, which can be visualized as a linear path with a beginning and an end (the one way stream), great integrated marketing now should be seen as a never-ending circular whirlpool-like stream with analytics and ROI measurement built in along the stream to allow for flexibility, speed, scalability and precise addition and subtraction of tactics throughout the continual process.

Like classic vertical integration, this approach is a strategic initiative with a lot of moving parts that requires a strong partner and organizational commitment and resources.

If you are currently doing the “Ad Hoc” or “Duct Tape” toe in the water approach, it’s time to jump into the stream.

Mobile Marketing and Commerce HOT Amongst eRetailers

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Caputo) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:08:00 +0000

We recently came back from the annual Internet Retailer Conference and Expo in Chicago. This is a conference created to bring together the Top 500 Internet Retailers and the brightest technology vendors in an attempt to provide a learning/networking event that everyone can benefit from. I walked away with oodles of PowerPoint slides all chock full of great data. This post discusses one of the hottest topics at this years show - mobile. Below are some data charts and graphs that illustrate the adoption of mobile marketing and commerce platforms amongst retailers and consumers. Click on the images to enhance the size for a better view. This chart illustrates the growth, in terms of dollars that online retail has experienced over the last 9 years. The growth is incremental year-over-year yet sustainable and not to mention this was in a poor economy.

This chart illustrates the percentage of growth that Internet Retailers have experienced year-over-year since 2001. Hard to believe it has only been 10 years for this industry.

There was a lot of focus placed on mobile marketing and commerce at this years event. Seems like mobile has been hot for a few years now. Back in 2005 I worked on the PayPal Text-to-Buy product launch and we thought that 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 would all be the year that mobile would take off. The reality was that the devices just were not there yet. Mobile browsing was cumbersome and slow at best. With modern smart phones like the iPhone, BlackBerry and the latest, KIN by Microsoft, it seems that this may be the year for mobile. So even with the expensive price tags, consumers continue to buy and use smart phones more than ever. In fact, a recent statistic from Forrester points out that "88% of US smart phone owners were satisfied with their most recent purchase via their phone".

Mobile coupons were by far the hottest mobile topic as retailers lined-up to hear several technology vendors share tips for mobile marketing best practices. I look forward to seeing how retailers adopt mobile heading into the 3rd quarter of the year.

If you are a brand I am interested in getting your comments and thoughts regarding your interest in mobile. Is it something you have on the agenda to implement in 2010? 2011? If you are a consumer do you see yourself using your mobile device more for retail purposes these days? How many of us have used our mobile phone to send a text to someone for purchasing advice or even to buy a product?

Measuring Social Media with Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:39:00 +0000

The big question on most marketers’ minds is “How do I measure social media performance?” For me, anytime you say the word measure, I immediately think of analytics. Since we have been implementing Google Analytics for the vast majority of our customers, I am going to focus on how to build a solution that will allow measurement in that tool.

There are two approaches to understanding the impact that social media is having on your website. The first thing to consider is what you want to measure. Are you putting effort into Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as part of your effort? If that is the case, you might want to just track those tools to see the traction you are getting through advanced segments.

If you are active in multitudes of social networking tools that include sites like Digg, MySpace, Wikipedia, friendfeed or others, you might want to take a different approach and create a filtered profile.

Advanced Segments

One of the simplest ways to see traction in your analytics is to create Advanced Segment. In the left-hand panel of the Google Analytics screen, there is a section called “My Customizations.” This section will contain a link for Advanced Segments. Once you are on the screen you will need to do the following to set up a segment:

Click the Create new custom segment in the top right corner
Under Dimensions, select Source from the Traffic Sources list.
You can either select a specific source from the drop down list, or you can type in a series of sources for you to track like digg|wikipedia|linkedin|facebook| twitter|feedburner
If you enter multiple sources, you will need to choose Matches regular expression from the drop down list
Give the segment a name in the box below
Click Create

The benefit of selecting an Advanced Segment is that you can compare the social media traffic to the other traffic on the website. This setup will allow you to see the behavioral differences that are happening between your direct, organic, paid and social traffic users. Where do you want to drop the social users? Is it in a different place than paid search? Do you need to create social media landing pages for your Facebook or Twitter programs?

Advanced segments will allow you to leverage all of your existing reports and show a comparison to the overall site and existing basic segments created by Google.

Filter Profile

I had written a blog post talking about filtering traffic for your profile. In order to create a social media profile, you would just need to create a filtered profile as described in the previous post. When creating the filter, just name it Social Networks and add the sources to track. It is done in the same way as the advanced segment “digg|wikipedia|linkedin|facebook| twitter|feedburner”- you can add other domains to track such as technorati, blogger, tinyurl and others as well.

By creating a filtered profile, every report you run will be specific to the social media outlets you are tracking. You can copy any custom reports you created and see all of your e commerce information in this profile.

Regardless of the way that you create the tracking, the ability to see the traction and behavior of social media users will give you greater insight into the value of these users to your website and business.

A Sampling of New, Brand-building Production Work

noreply@blogger.com (Hallie Bram) — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Read about Hallie Bram's insight on short film and longer format production work and how it can help build a brand in her new blog post, A Sampling of New, Brand-building Production Work.

SEO Linking Etiquette Series: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica Baker) — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:03:00 +0000

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and linking, I have always been very mindful of sticking to a few linking rules that I personally consider a form of linking etiquette. Below are 2 of my linking etiquette guidelines and examples of how to do it properly:

Linking Props

It is always a good sign of a classy SEO when you mention and highlight others or websites and link over to them. I get very frustrated when I read an article or post and they don’t link over, I especially get frustrated when an SEO does this, It is very poor taste to mention someone or a website and not provide a link back to their site or profile. Personally I find it even worse if the mention was in regards to a particular product, service or major keyword and an anchor text link is not given. I can definitely give slack if the author was less informed on anchor text linking, but I have come across many SEO’s that do not do this. Providing these links, and even more importantly anchor text links, is a sign of respect to others and a great way of contributing to continue the cycle of linking.

Below is an example of a way to highlight a website and give them proper linking:

Vintage clothing is obviously a big clothing trend and I have always found it hard to find vintage styles like. Recently I came across ModCloth.com, a great source for vintage clothing.

I was discussing vintage clothing and highlighting a brand I found relevant to what I was discussing. Instead of just linking the brand, I chose to link “vintage clothing” because I can see that that is a major keyword for them and I would like to help them as much as I can by giving them that anchor text link.

Linking to your friends

I am all about helping friends, co-workers or even acquaintances for that matter when it comes to promotion and linking; however you are first and foremost obligated to your audience to provide them with the best information, while remaining very relevant to what you are discussing. Inserting links that don’t make sense just to help a friend is a poor linking practice. Even more, linking to a friend if they are not the best resource for the topic you are discussing. I agree that I do have some friends that I feel are the best at something, but as a provider of content I have to be realistic and be able to weed out which website or people are the most appropriate to reference as a resource.

Below is a tactful way to highlight a someone that is relevant to what you are talking about, but also providing your audience with the right resource:

Jenn Vojta has seemed to master the use of etiquette in many situations,situations; I am going to look into EmilyPost.com which appears to give great etiquette advice.

Jenn is a coworker and truly does seem to practice proper etiquette in many situations and I wanted to mention her to let her know that I have noticed, but Jenn is not an authority on etiquette so I would never point my audience towards her in relation to getting etiquette advice, but use her as an example. Look forward to 2 more linking etiquette highlights in the next SEO blog post.

In the meantime, what do you think of these 2? Have you seen poor linking tactics?

Understanding What Audiences Think of Social Media Channels

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:45:00 +0000

At a recent ExactTarget Partner Conference, Morgan Stewart, ExactTarget's Director of Research and Strategy, spoke about a recent study regarding social media channels.

Stewart focused the output of the study around 3 main media channels including Facebook, Twitter and email. As part of that presentation, he listed the strengths, weaknesses and unique quality of each channel. I thought the results were very compelling and very succinctly focused on consumer perception of each one.

I have listed the top two items for each category and summed up the uniqueness statement for each one below.

Facebook

Strengths: 1) Reconnecting with friends, 2) Entertainment

Weaknesses: 1) Addiction (time suck), 2) Frequent design changes

Unique Proposition: Consumers are able to support brands they admire, and it is FUN! (remember fun?)

Twitter

Strengths: 1) Brevity and immediacy ,2) Versatility

Weaknesses: 1) Extraneous & Information Overload, 2) Chaotic and confusing on boarding

Unique Proposition: The interaction and collaboration + message amplification = Influence (basically, maybe there are not as many people on Twitter as Facebook, but the Twitter leaders are well-connected and respected in their field.

Email

Strengths: 1) Familiarity, 2) Privacy/Trust

Weaknesses: 1) SPAM/Viruses, 2) Miscommunication

Unique Proposition: Promotions/Deals + Considered Membership = Exclusivity (I can get or share information that is not broadcast to everyone.)

Overall, I thought that Stewart very clearly defined the strengths of each category and how consumers reacted and desire to use the product. That type of insight really helps clarify where a tool should belong in the overall strategic planning for a social media campaign.

HTML5 Things Worth Knowing - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Bykowski) — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:45:00 +0000

THE PRIORITY OF CONSTITUENCIES

One of the major components and original ideas behind HTML5 is the priority of constituencies construct. Very simply, the W3C characterizes it as:

In case of conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over theoretical purity. In other words costs or difficulties to the user should be given more weight than costs to authors; which in turn should be given more weight than costs to implementors; which should be given more weight than costs to authors of the spec itself, which should be given more weight than those proposing changes for theoretical reasons alone. Of course, it is preferred to make things better for multiple constituencies at once.

This is essentially the opposite approach that the now defunct previous specification had taken. What it means is that the spec will not be driven by theoretical purity but by real-world experiences. I’ve been writing (mostly) theoretically pure markup since I began working on the Web and any Web developer should do this as a matter of principle rather than because the spec requires it. This allows the flexibility of HTML to be built-in rather than added on.

MOBILE WEB EXPERIENCES

While the majority of web browsing is still done mostly on PCs, the area of web browsing that is growing the fastest is in the mobile space. Smart phones and web enabled small screen devices have exploded in popularity. Part of what makes these devices effective is the lean approach they take to extend battery life and function with processor power that is more or less equivalent to the computers of nearly a decade ago. As such, the rich application experiences common to PC browsing requires computing and processing power that taxes battery life and drags in performance. HTML5 helps mitigate this issue by simplifying the technology to a basic standard that can be run within the browser without third party applications or plugins.

Indeed, in Steve Jobs open letter, addressing his company’s policy of not supporting Flash on portable apple devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad, he directly highlights the power draining, processor intensive practices of Adobe’s Flash product.

While HTML5 may not have the urgency to deliver its power saving, processor lean aspects for PCs, the mobile space is crying out for this flexibility. Marketers and developers alike will find respite in HTML5 as it levels the playing field, giving them greater control and more universal access to creating truly cross platform browsing experiences.

AN OPEN STANDARD

While HTML5 as a fully approved spec will not take place for some time, this technology is uniquely poised to become a standard built upon the direct input of the community. In addition to the W3C and the group of browser developers and Internet evangelists from WHAT WG, the greater community of web developers and architect will influence the evolution of HTML5. If the endeavor proves successful, it will result in a technology of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Currently, there are many ways for you to get involved and learn more about HTML5:

Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group WHATWG is responsible for championing the HTML5 spec that was taken up by the W3C.
World Wide Web Consortium – HTML5 Overview The W3C is in charge of reviewing and approving the final spec for HTML5.
HTML5 Doctor & HTML5 Demos HTML5 Doctor and Remy Sharp’s HTML5 Demos have excellent demos, examples, and references.

BOTTOM LINE

While HTML5 is still very much an emerging technology, it is an important technology that has far reaching implications for everyone. For marketers, this is important since this will be the new digital medium through which customers interact with your products and services online. For developers, this is the chance to transcend the murky boundaries of the rich internet. For the rest of us, HTML5 is the promise of a new and exciting chapter of the Web. One in which we will experience new interactions that vary subtly from what we see today while others we have never seen before. For now, we should only seek to match our audience to our capabilities and use HTML5 as an effective tool toward better communication and interaction.

HTML5 Things Worth Knowing - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Ben Bykowski) — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:14:00 +0000

One of the biggest buzz words in technology on the Web in 2010 is HTML5. Indeed the technology is very promising and is rapidly gaining support among the general web development community. In this two-part post I’ll highlight five things worth knowing about HTML5.

In record time, HTML5 dons a complete ‘brand’ overhaul – what once was a spec mired in complication and politics is now showing promise in all of its facets, well beyond simple markup and semantics.

HTML5 is nearly ready for the big time and it’s promising great features and improvements for users and developers alike, from embedded video to more robust networking experiences.

The spat between Apple and Adobe over the former’s apparent policy of refusing to offer support for Adobe’s Flash platform on some of their products is at the heart of this development. While Apple’s decision renders the iPad, iPod, and iPhone incompatible with web pages serving Flash-based content, their argument for this positions HTML5 (along with CSS and JavaScript) as the open, cross platform alternative. Beyond that, most popular browser makers have adopted some support for HTML5 (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the only one without any relevant support, though IE 9 looks to change that). Given that the first candidate recommendation to the W3C isn’t scheduled until 2012 and it won’t be until 2022 that the spec is slated for proposed recommendation, it might seem confusing or at least premature to expect anything relevant to be available today. So here are five things that should help clear things up.

EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION

While it is often true that the latest release of a software platform or program replaces or otherwise makes an older version obsolete, it was never the intention of HTML5 to replace the existing HTML 4.01 spec. Rather, Web developers saw an opportunity to take HTML 4.01 which already works quite well and extend it. What this means is that much what has been established in HTML 4.01 will still hold true in HTML5. While some presentation elements have been deprecated, any self respecting Web developer has long since eschewed the use of these in favor of CSS. What we can expect from HTML5 is support for many interactions we take for granted today, but which are being accomplished via things like Flash or Silverlight or a combination of CSS, Javascript and RDFa or Microformats. HTML5 seeks to pave the cow paths as it were. Examples of this include native support for playing video and audio without the need of a plugin like Flash or Silverlight. Also, a number of presentational elements have evolved to specifically address the way we arrange elements on a page, from the header and footer to content sections and articles. It allows us to be more descriptive of our content, making it easier for people using assistive technologies and search engines indexing content for ranking purposes.

GROWING BROWSER SUPPORT

While Internet Explorer has yet to adopt much of the HTML5 spec (most notably Video and Audio Support), it is highly likely that the next iteration of the browser, IE9 will have much more support for the most common elements in the spec. Currently the Opera browser has the widest range of support for HTML5 and Opera Mini recently passed Safari as the most popular browser on the iPhone. The second most popular browser on the Internet, Mozilla’s Firefox, supports the audio video and canvas elements as does Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. So what does this growing support for HTML5 mean? Well for starters, content authors looking to leverage rich media experiences are now able to do so by offering HTML5 content to users on mobile devices with these browsers. Gadgets such as the iPad and iPod touch also benefit from this trend which gives marketers a way in with rich media despite a lack of support for Flash or Silverlight.

Read HTML5 Things Worth Knowing - PartII

Guided-Navigation – 5 Major Impacts on SEO and Website Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica Baker) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:33:00 +0000

A few years ago I had just started working at American Greetings Interactive as the in-house SEO and I sat in on a meeting intended to give everyone an overview of the Endeca guided-navigation system that was going to be implemented on one of our websites. Thirty minutes later I walked out, maybe ran out, to my desk and feverishly started writing down the major concerns I identified on how implementing guided navigation would impact our SEO efforts and website performance.

Don’t get me wrong, I saw a lot of potential. I am a huge fan! Implementing guided-navigation does answer a few SEO dreams; however implementing it right out of the box or just using the “SEO Package” that comes with the guided-navigation system just isn’t enough.

At Optiem, we are currently working with a few SEO clients on effectively optimizing guided-navigation systems and consulting with a few others on how to properly implement guided-navigation on their websites. So I thought I would share a few of the major issues I feel need to be addressed when implementing guided-navigation systems:

Duplicate Content

Guided-navigation systems dynamically create pages of content based on filters and paths user take to get to a piece of content. The problem that this generates is the creation of many, upwards of 50+, duplicate pages of 1 piece of content. This can cause many issues with search engines in that duplicate content on a website can result in the website performing below average, getting sandboxed, a decrease in overall pages being indexed on the website and many more.

URL Structure

Guided-navigation systems tend to dynamically create page URL’s in the same way it dynamically creates the pages. This can result in excessively long URL’s, illogical code, a poor user experience, decrease the ability to optimize the page for major keywords and much more. Most guided-navigation systems do have some ways in which the URL’s can be structured to incorporate keywords, but this is still not the best solution to the problem(s).

Page Saturation

When guided-navigation systems are implemented, the number of pages a website has sky rockets due to the multiple combinations of pages created by the system. Again, though this can be a benefit to implementing guided-navigation systems, it is also a major downside. Going from 80K pages to 500K is a major red flag. Making these types of jumps can cause some major concerns and should be addressed prior to launch.

Website Crawlability

With the influx of pages created by the guided-navigation systems, more issues tend to arise around the crawlability and indexation of the website. If the systems are not implemented correctly, they can cause some major crawlability issues. These issues create both a technical problem and a prioritization problem. You don’t want to go through all the work of implementation to ruin it with crawlability issues.

Optimization

Implementing guided-navigation systems open websites up to an advanced level of optimization that other websites not using guided-navigation cannot compete with, which is why SEO is so vital to the proper implementation of it. However, if major elements are taken into consideration and optimized effectively, the effort itself will not be as optimal.

Unfortunately with home-grown and major Endeca-like guided-navigation systems, there is no website or brand immune to the problems above and the impact it will have on search engines and the performance of your website. However, keep in mind that all of these SEO concerns have the ability to be mitigated by the proper recommendations, implementation and optimization.

South By Southwest - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Hallie Bram) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I attended about 20 panels at this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) over the course of the week (not including films, showcases, demonstrations, and concerts). The festival was quite the content-overload and some panels were better than others. Now back at work and having had some time to soak on the experience, these three panels keep coming to mind:

The Future of TV featuring Dominic Venuto of Razorfish

The common feeling was that Venuto, being from an agency so entrenched in Digital, would choose his words carefully but insinuate that we are living in an age where television is less prominent and, thus, the :30 second TV spot is near extinction. Right off the bat, however, he made it clear that this was not his feeling nor the common view of his agency. His message was that he saw the medium changing and evolving and in fact adapting certain characteristics of the digital world.

After discussing the findings of a TV deprivation study that Razorfish conducted, Venuto then began his description of how he saw the medium evolving. His suggestions seem to tap into these key motivators while pulling in tools and trends made popular online. The keys to creating this “future” include:

Making the medium much more social
Removing the linear structure – making the medium completely “on demand”
Allowing content to be portable
Dialing up the interactivity through more in-program game implimentation
Creating a more balanced mix of studio and user generated content

Ideas about how this could work such as:

Creating mood-driven menus
Allowing content to be provided from any media outlet (instead of content being purely network-driven)
Creating an interface that is similar to iTunes, complete with a rating system and suggestions tab
Featuring social tools such as friends lists, friend-sourced playlists, functionality that shows what your friends are watching, chatting, etc.
Allowing all content to live in a cloud that is constantly evolving

How advertisers will need to adapt and things to consider:

The :30 second spot, according to Venuto, will still exist, though it will be featured more sporadically (decreasing clutter + increasing impact)
On screen ads similar to online display ads will emerge
WOM will be huge – chatting, texting, tweeting, etc. will all help to create buzz around content and/or ads
Brands will need to integrate projects into programming thus propelling the need for TV app development

Venuto feels that this way of experiencing television will allow consumers to have more control over what they watch and become much more involved with the content in various ways.

The major take away is that the medium is changing. Content is king and the more social you make your TV advertising, the more you can engage your viewers and dial up interactivity.

Wow That’s Cool…Fun With HTML5 Video featuring Michael Dale of Wikimedia and Christopher Blizzard of Mozilla

If you don’t know the boundaries of a medium, you can’t create the best work. In this spirit I decided to attend this panelOver the last few months I’ve seen HTML5 pop up in some of the blogs I read regularly – of which very few I would consider to be “bleeding edge tech” focused. Meaning: it’s coming – and faster than we think. For a long time developers felt this medium was interesting but that the internet as a whole (given restrictions of many users) could not support this technology in any mainstream way and perhaps there were other, more appropriate solutions. This meant one thing for marketers: if what you’re interested in is engaging in a mass-market play, this platform was off limits.

Based on what I heard in this panel it seems like this isn’t completely the case anymore. Technology has caught up and much like we use HTML to support Flash campaigns, so can we create multiple viewing experiences for different users with HTML5. This is hard to understand in generalities, so let me explain a bit about HTML5.

In terms of how this works with video, the way I think of this technology is a kin to Photoshop. Except your canvas can be video or animation. And elements laid on top of that canvas are dynamic. As someone who manages a production studio I find this incredibly empowering. This means that production studios aren’t limited to “refreshing” content. When appropriate, we can use this technology to create ever-evolving content. Video is no longer a static element – it can now be the basis for messaging that is responsive, reactive, and ever changing.

I appreciated the example given that showcased how you can integrate dynamic content from Twitter – thus allowing video to be much more social and take on new meaning. Seeing the drag + drop functionality, time scroll, and other features of a typical HTML5 just further demonstrated the ease of use and heightened user experience.

While support for HTML5 continues to grow with some of the new features now available for certain browsers, there will still be a period of trial and error for HTML5. I’ve learned that it won’t actually be an “approved spec” for another 10 years or so. But, those who are able to figure this out, quickly, will find it to be a powerful tool (you can accommodate some of this functionality with things like JavaScript, however, it’s a much more involved process). I know that our team at Optiem is already moving forward aggressively with R&D in this area. Ben Bykowski will be contributing his thoughts on HTML5 to this blog in the coming days so make sure to check back.

Unconsumption featuring Dr. Nita Rollins of Resource Interactive

Ever wonder how the recession really affected consumer behavior? Well: “Sales at Goodwill stores grew 7.1 percent in the first three months of 2009. Craigslist saw 100 percent increase in bartering. And companies began to launch campaigns to appeal to the frugal consumer, like the Babies 'R' Us trade-in where customers brought in old car seats for discounts on new goods.” (Courtesy of Huffington Post.) Just a few stats, but, you see a trend emerging.

For many, this behavior is mandatory. But, for others, it’s trendy. Remember all those celebrities and their plain white shopping bags a few years ago? Nobody wants to be seen as a “have” in a world where most of those that make them successful are “have nots.” The same holds true for brands. But it’s not just an image play – what companies also have to deal with is how to stay profitable when their target audience seemingly can’t afford to buy their product.

Rollins focus was about reaching the consumer, branding, and allowing that branding to do the heavy lifting of motivating that unconsuming consumer to action. Below are her suggestions for how to appeal to unconsumers:

Clarify what you mean by “sustainability”
Incorporate sustainability into your business’ operations, communications, and tactics
Provide consumers with the option to rent rather than buy
Think about selling “vintage” products
Look to de-sanctify your packaging – understand it is trash if you don’t specify another use (i.e. art)
Support swapping on-site

Even with the recession starting to soften, brands need to be aware that this trend is strong and, while it may diminish, certain brands will need to address this mindset present with their target audience for years to come.

South By Southwest 2010 - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Hallie Bram) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:15:00 +0000

For several years I have planned to attend South by Southwest (SXSW), however, one thing would lead to another and I would end up having to pass. I decided that this year I really wanted to experience the festival, start to finish. My main reason for going was to see what others had to say about the future of production, broadcast, implimentation, and interactive content/technology. I was excited to be exposed to lots of new ideas and variations on old favorites.

The DIY spirit is still there around the edges, but the festival itself is a glossy, packaged, content-overload, behemoth of a week. I stayed for 9 days and would fall into bed each night, my head spinning with ideas. Not every panel was worthwhile (and some were actually mind-numbingly awful) but there were a few true highlights I can share from my time in Austin.

Activation

I have planned/executed event marketing campaigns for clients at SXSW in the past (including this one for Napster [while at Modernista!] in 2006), soI had a good idea of the type of brand experience activation work I might encounter. I’ve read about what brands have done in the past and have seen what has been hailed vs. panned. With that context I was excited to see what companies would do at this year’s event.

Without a doubt, the best activation I came across was from third-year running SXSW automotive sponsor, Chevy. They tapped into 2 of the most important needs that any SXSW attendee has: Power and Transportation. With all of the tweeting, texting, emailing, calling, web browsing, and searching we put our smartphones through during the course of 1 day at SXSW, you’re lucky to get a 6 hour charge. Couple that with the fact that there were many who lugged their laptops around with them and you have a situation where power is at a premium and outlets weren’t always readily accessible. Enter the Chevy Volt Recharge Lounge. Not only was there an abundance of power outlets but also just about any cord you could possibly need. The Chevy Volt Recharge Loungewas also a comfortable and convenient space to wait while you allowed your devices to charge. These brief moments of “down time” allowed attendees to connect with one another and discuss what they had learned. The area was branded with Chevy logos and content, but that branding felt natural and not the least bit “pushy.” Perhaps most importantly, this activation played off of the core product benefit of the Chevy Volt: electricity. Once you were charged up and ready to head to your next event, you could go outside and “Catch a Chevy.” Free, comfortable transportation provided by every model in the Chevy portfolio (especially toward the end of the week when temperatures dropped near freezing)? I would say that was another win for General Motors’ Chevy division.

Event marketing and brand activation are top of mind, perhaps, because Adcom Communications, part of The Adcom Group of Companies, recently planned and executed a brand activation campaign for Key Bank that was actually record-breaking.

Why Facebook is Rocking the Attention Market

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:32:00 +0000

There has been a lot of press lately that Facebook is catching up with Google when it comes to the volume of unique visitors. Indeed, Facebook has been closing the gap quickly over the past year. The thing that I realized though is that Unique Visitor is not telling the whole story. It just tells you how many people are coming to the site.

When it gets down to it, the story about Facebook isn’t that it’s new. In July 2009, it was matching Google for the number of visits per person. It is pretty startling to think how often people use Google products in a day. That’s right, the comparison charts include over 400 Google subdomains in their counts.

As of August, Facebook starting pulling away and hasn’t looked back. Did you ever wonder why so many big brands have been rapidly migrating to Facebook? They have the consumers’ attention, and have decided to get in on the action.

In the online marketing and techno world, there is a lot of buzz about Twitter and Foursquare. It is true, theses tools have a good audience, and growing, but when you look at the overall volume, it makes you think how important are these tools in the mix of your online marketing?

The most amazing factor in considering the Facebook factor is the overall attention they have gotten. Even a year ago, more people have been paying attention to Facebook than to Google or other social media outlets.

Attention considers all the time a user spends online as total and then determines what percentage of that time was spent on each website. When you think about how little attention other popular social media tools are getting, it is almost embarrassing. Yes, I have written a dozen or so blog posts about Twitter and Twitter tools, but virtually nothing about Facebook.

It seems like Facebook has shown that it has captured the users’ attention, and the ability to see the results of the competition tell a compelling story about the powerful opportunities that Facebook holds for marketers to engage with consumers.

The 3 Cornerstones of Online Reputation Management

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica Baker) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:08:00 +0000

As the online space continues to change, there are very few online strategies that can stand the test of time. However, when it comes to online reputation management, there is one that has always stuck with me through the years and I still use today with clients. I remember vividly reading one of my first articles on online reputation management from Andy Beal a few years ago. He kept mentioning these three words to live by when it comes to online reputation management:

Sincerity
Transparency
Consistency

Sincerity

I have heard many companies express how important their customers and users are. And as much as we would all love to believe that that is true, it may not always be the case. They often times express how they really want to be there for their consumers in any way they need – if they have a problem or just to be an open ear on how improvements can be made. In the past before the Internet existed or even before the massive wave of user-generated content, many companies could hide behind these words because no one truly knew if they were really following up on their company promise.

Today, consumers know. Today, everyone knows.

If you are a company today you have to truly be there for your consumers, not just want to be there. You have to create a positive experience with your company. Whether that is reinforcing a positive consumer experience or converting a bad experience into one that wipes away the previous interaction.

Transparency

As a company, you have to realize that pretty much everything is going to end up online at some time or another. So being transparent to your consumers is very important to managing your online reputation. Being transparent with your consumers only incites a trustworthy feeling about your company, and as we all know that trust factor does weigh into whether or not they will engage with your company.

Consistency

Many companies message consumers by way of promising an experience, commitment and a value. If consumers continue to feel as though the company’s message or actions are inconsistent with their promise, many companies are going to lose these vital consumers. I also tend to stress the importance of being consistent when it comes to a company’s presence online. A consumer needs to feel confident that you are continually listening to them and are ready to aid them in any way.

There are no days off in online reputation management.

Always keep in mind the three core values when it comes to online reputation management: Sincerity, Transparency and Consistency.

Cause Marketing…Back To The Now

noreply@blogger.com (Clyde Miles) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:51:00 +0000

A few years ago, we suggested to a client that they create a think tank around a major environmental concern that was inexorably aligned with their products. We saw this connection as a platform for effective PR as well as for the obvious good it could do. We saw it as a win-win situation.

The concept was floated around the client marketing and sales group, but ultimately died a slow, quiet death. Why? It was not about pushing products. It was before the advent of social media and the resulting need for meaningful content to give brands relevant ways to connect with consumers in meaningful non-push ways.

Recently I saw a great post at SmartBlog for Social Media covering a presentation by Bob Gilbreath, author of “Marketing with Meaning” that really crystallized what we were thinking back then.

Bob’s list of tenets for creating a cause marketing platform brought it all back to me.

Create a cause clearly linked to your brand purpose.
Make sure it’s meaningful.• Invest in it for the long haul.
Create something employees can get engaged with.
Act quickly. (Like Tide’s “Loads of Hope”)
Create a cause that’s brand-relevant. (Like Haagen-Dazs "Help the Honeybees")

After all, we know that consumers will switch brands based on association with a good cause. Too bad we were too far ahead of our time. It wasn’t an immediately actionable obvious approach back then. But now it is.

A Holistic Approach to Media

noreply@blogger.com (Loren Chylla) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:56:00 +0000

My view of media has changed throughout my career. The basics are still in tact: I thrive on getting a good deal, I love achieving massive reach and tons of frequency on a media plan, and I still buy magazines and even newspapers just to look at the ads. But over the years I’ve come to appreciate the strategic aspect of bringing a message to market. In today’s ever-changing media environment it’s become necessary to take a holistic approach to every assignment by incorporating the traditional aspects of media such as print, broadcast, and outdoor with the latest in digital technology.

When Joe Kubic described to me his vision of the Adcom/Optiem media department nearly three years ago and it was consistent with this philosophy I jumped at the chance to help bring this vision to reality. In my mind the opportunity to lead this concept at a forward-thinking agency like Adcom/Optiem was exactly the environment I was looking for – and I didn’t have to leave Cleveland to do it. As part of a team of nearly a dozen planners, buyers, and subject matter experts we are always up to date on the latest trends and developments. Most of us are fully integrated in the same room so ideas and solutions flow freely; this team environment allows some of the best experts in their field to present integrated concepts and ideas to clients across multiple disciplines.

It is through this blog that I will share some of these ideas and opportunities as our specialized holistic approach to media becomes increasingly important in this technologically advanced landscape. Look here for discussion around successfully integrating traditional and digital platforms as well as the latest trends in online targeting, social media, mobile, and more. And please feel free to join the discussion.

5 Things You Need to Know About Analytics Filtering

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:46:00 +0000

To filter or not to filter? That is the question. The answer is yes.

There are times when you want to filter and there are times when you don’t want to filter. There are a lot of theories about what you should be doing with your analytics profiles, but I thought I would provide you with some can’t go wrong guidelines to get started.

Always create a profile that DOES NOT filter traffic. Why? When you create a filter for a hosted analytics solution, it will not track the traffic. If you don’t capture it the first time, there is no going back. In most hosted analytics solutions, you can create multiple profiles under a single account, so always create a master account with full traffic being tracked.
You want to see internal traffic. Believe it or not, there are people at your company who use the website as a tool. Mainly, this group will be customer service, but the best website contains great corporate information that can serve as a repository for every last employee.
Customers Only! One of the great benefits of robust analytics is that you can set and measure goals. By creating a profile that does filter out internal IP addresses, you can count the conversions and measure for your customers and not dilute your numbers with internal users. Also, it gives you a place to examine customer behaviors online without being sideswiped by activity of power users from your company.
Is It In or Is It Out? There are multiple ways to define a filter. The most common ones are to either include or exclude specific traffic criteria. For example, you can exclude internal traffic or incoming traffic from a specific referring domain. Include filters do the opposite; they only track the criteria you set. Creating an include filter for your paid search or social media program is a great idea. It allows you to more closely track the user behavior of this group.
Search and Replace That last part of the puzzle is a filter that is used by Google Analytics. It allows you to make changes to dynamic URLs so that you can easily interpret the data in your reports. For example, you might have a URL that looks like www.optiem.com/products.aspx?id=200. The “id=200” might be a “white paper” or a specific product category. By creating a search and replace filter, you can change the display of the information, making it easier for the marketing team to interpret analytics reports.

There are a lot more things you can do in Google Analytics with filters, but these five will get you moving in the right direction.

One last note about filters. In Google Analytics, filters are applied to the data in the order they were added to the profile. This order can change the result data you get depending on what type of filters you are applying. It is worth doing a gut check to see if you are getting a result set that looks right based on a manual calculation. If it doesn’t seem to be working, don’t worry, you still have the Master Profile to use.

So Your Competition is on Facebook…What Are You Going To Do?

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica Baker) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:55:00 +0000

A) Laugh, my competitor just wasted their time because social media is just a fad

B) Nothing, my target market isn’t on Facebook

C) Catch-up, create a Facebook Page, a Twitter Page, a Blog and start posting tomorrow

D) Pause, take a deep breath and plan the attack

If you chose D…Ding, Ding, Ding! Right answer! Let’s go through each.

A) Laugh, my competitor just wasted their time because social media is just a fad
I hate to break it to you, but social media is here to stay. It is funny how many times I have heard that over the last 5 years. When I first started working with clients on social media marketing, I heard time and time again clients referencing social media as the latest and greatest and that it would soon fizzle out. Almost 5 years later, now more than ever, I am still working with clients on social media marketing and the value and metrics are only getting better. Anyone interested in specific social media statistics can easily type in to a search engine and get any number of statistics they are looking for in reference to a specific social media channel, but they tend to trend the same – up.

Combination of Compete.com metrics from:

Facebook.com
MySpace.com
Twitter.com
Digg.com
YouTube.com

Though these are only a few social media marketing channels, they consistently show the increase in usage and engagement.

B) Nothing, my target market isn’t on Facebook
There was a time when this type of statement could have been true…4 years ago. Today, every type of demographic is using some form of social media. The demographic reach of social media continues to expand everyday and though the audience you are looking to target may not be the majority demographic today, that doesn’t mean it won’t grow over time and more importantly those that are there aren’t the high-quality market you are looking for.

C) Catch-up, create a Facebook Page, a Twitter Page, a Blog and start posting tomorrow
This is one of the most common reactions made by companies in response to realizing that their competition is utilizing Social Media. Just because it may be easy to sign-up for social media accounts and sounds easy enough to just post what people will want to read doesn’t mean it is. This is a knee-jerk reaction that often ends up bad for the company. Marketers tend to either try to do it all and realize it is too time consuming to handle and stop using it all together or they throw up a bunch of “stuff” and don’t understand why they are not getting fans/retweets/comments. In the end this reaction doesn’t allow you to truly gage whether social media is a viable and scalable marketing solution.

D) Pause, take a deep breath and plan the attack
Too many times companies react to their competition’s use of social media by either A, B or C. What many often times overlook is the fact that stopping to assess the situation to allow your company to choose the right content/interactions and plan out how you will measure is the best way to approach social media. We often find that many companies are just impatient and don’t want to take the time to take this approach; however it is better to be 30 minutes late to the party and show up with the right food, outfit and gift than show up 2 minutes late with nothing to offer.

What many fail to realize is that Social Media is here to stay (it is just constantly evolving), every demographic is using some form of Social Media, haphazard use of Social Media can dilute a brand/products trust and the most important - - - Social Media is one of the most powerful influencers, take the time to do it right; because with the nuances that make social media, you can’t go back.

Optimizing Beyond The Click: 5 Tips For PPC Landing Pages That Convert

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany Olson) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:50:00 +0000

So you’ve slaved away to create the ideal PPC account structure. Your keyword mix is thorough, ad copy is crafted and aggressive bid strategy is forging ahead. As expected, if you build it they will come. But….now what? A common mistake in PPC account management is forgetting to look beyond the click. While creating an ideal pre-click structure is important, it’s only half way to your goal. Here are some tips to consider for effective PPC landing pages:

1. Offer a clear call to action

PPC landing pages often get crowded with a number of different possible actions. Whether it’s to complete and submit a form, watch a video or make a purchase, the best rule of thumb is to minimize choices.
Another important factor to keep in mind is the placement of your call to action. Make sure it’s easy to identify and is within the reading pane.

2. Follow through on your promise

If your ad copy offers 25% off your total purchase, make sure you are landing the user on a page where that offer is prominent.
If your ad copy touts your wide selection of a specific product, land your user on a page with the appropriate product offering. If a category page doesn’t exist, don’t be afraid to leverage your internal site search. Just be sure to proceed with caution.

3. Keep it simple, easily guide the user to your goal

An intricate design is beautiful, but can distract from the task at hand.
Leverage text when it makes sense, but keep the length to a minimum and be sure the layout is easy to scan.

4. Evoke Trust

Why is this product/content/sign-up form relevant to me? Clearly state the benefits without sounding too salesy.
List any relevant organizations or security services that your site is affiliated with, but be cautious of crowding your page with unnecessary clutter.

5. Offer a secondary goal, where applicable

If the primary call to action is for a user to download a whitepaper or read information about a specific offering, don’t miss the opportunity to entice them with other relevant services that might be of interest. However, keep numbers one and three in mind!

While this nearly scratches the surface on the innumerable elements for a well-converting PPC landing page, it’s a great place to start and a solid complement to a well built PPC structure.

SEO Metrics – Getting Past Rankings and Looking Forward to SEO ROI

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica Baker) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:43:00 +0000

I thought that making the transition back to an agency and revamping Optiem’s SEO services and approach was by no means going to be an easy task, but I didn’t expect how hard it was going to be to transition clients away from treating rankings as the be all, end all SEO metric. Taking my previous experience at an agency and most recently from the client-side, I wanted to bring this new ROI approach to clients to:

Improve their SEO efforts
Alleviate some of the burden of justifying the marketing investment

I think I was definitely naïve to think this transition was going to be easy. There were some clients that were ecstatic to begin seeing these new SEO metrics like forecasting and ROI models with ROI reports added monthly; however others still wanted to look at their ranking reports.

One of the main problems with search rankings being the sole SEO metric is the lack of accurate data. I can’t tell you how many times we have received questions from clients on why they are seeing their company rank 5th and the person down the hall from them are seeing it as 3rd and we reported to them that it was ranked 4th. So when trying to answer this question for clients, along with trying to convince them to transition their SEO success metrics, I try to touch upon some of the discrepancies that can occur on a daily basis in search ranking results and how that can taint their ranking metrics. Individual Search History Did you know that your search results can be affected by:

Whether you are logged into your Gmail account
What websites you have visited in the past
Your location
How many times you have searched for a given keyword phrase

These are some of the most common obstacles I see with clients. All of the examples above can have an effect on your search engine results page (SERPS) and can shuffle your organic listings. Case in point, a major keyword for one of our clients:

Search Engine Algorithm Updates
Everyday search engine algorithms are updated, not once, but MANY times throughout the day! This can have an effect on your websites rankings and can often change your ranking position from one hour to the next. This is generally not drastic fluctuations, but tends to be a shift of 1 or2 positions up or down. These changes aren’t usually major ones, but are most like upgrades that are used to continually refine the weighted scoring system.

Competition Optimization
If you are doing the bare-minimum SEO or did an SEO update a year ago and haven’t updated it since, which by the way SEO is ongoing and should never a one-time deal, who’s to say that your competition isn’t continually updating their SEO efforts or doing SEO a little better? If your competitors are constantly making updates, adding new content, are actively engaged in linkbuilding campaigns and optimizing their website they will inevitably move around you in the rankings.

Website Updates
You’ve made updates to your website; did you consult with your in-house SEO or SEO agency? Often times website updates can have a major effect (good and bad) on a website’s ranking performance. What may seem like a harmless updates like removing products, adding filters and adding content can actually affect your websites ranking performance. What is even scarier are those companies that make even bigger changes like website redesigns and adding guided-navigation and do not consult with an SEO. These are major changes that should always be brought to the attention of an SEO to ensure the site is still incorporating SEO Best Practices for optimal crawability.

I’m definitely not saying that rankings should not play a part in your SEO strategy and in SEO performance; I am simply suggesting that you primarily measure success in dollars and cents and have the ability to say I spent $X on my site this year and received $Y in return. The transition to this type of SEO metric is by no means easy, but well worth the ROI! Look forward to the next SEO blog post that will explain the benefit of measuring ROI as the major SEO metric.

Online Research Sources

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Nawrocki) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:54:00 +0000

When thinking about doing an online marketing project, the place to start is with the consumer. By creating an understanding with the consumer, any project can be more directly focused on fulfilling the needs of the audience you want to reach. In order to do this, you need to start with market research. There is often a perception that doing market research can be timely and expensive. While in-depth market research can be both of these, basic market research can be done quickly and cost effectively.

With the growth of online tools, anyone has the ability to do some basic fact finding about their website, their products and their online audience. The first place to start is to take a look at how your website is performing and who is coming to your website. You might think you know your customer, but it might not be the same customer online.

For example, when doing research for COSE, a small business chamber of commerce, we found a marked difference between the person who was the member and the person using the website. The member population was dominantly male, but the online population was much more even. By using the free demographic information in Alexa.com, you can see these gender differences.

There are several sources on the internet that can provide online market research data for free, or for your email address. It might provide limited insight, but by grabbing user information, it will help you create a more complete picture of your audience and how to reach them. Here are a couple of sources worth checking out:

Nielsen – The Nielsen Company has a large library of research reports that cover a plethora of topics. Most of these are available by providing your contact information.
Hitwise– a great amount of online data is available from Hitwise. They even have it geographically segmented as well.
eMarketer– sign up for their newsletters and weekly charts. They are a treasure trove of marketing data.
Alexa – with user stats, demographics and search analytics, this website can give you a nice picture of the online user for you, and your customers.
Google Insights– get information about search terms that are important to you and see who and where in the world people are talking about it.

Just remember, there is data out there. Doing online market research will bring an enormous amount of value to what you want to accomplish. There are so many facets of what you can discover.